Chapter 6

Prove it.

“How?” Seth said aloud as he hiked up the dirt path worn into the side of the hill. “How can I prove that I agree Talitha is a pest? How can I prove my friends are most important?”

Usually he asked his friends for help on things like this. But this time he had to come up with something all by himself.

Talitha hates to wear wet or dirty clothes. Seth bit his lip as he thought and then talked to himself. “If I got her soaking wet and then pushed her in the mud, she’d have to walk through town all filthy.” He frowned. “No, she’d just rinse off in the lake. She’d be wet, but it wouldn’t be enough.”

He could dye her clothes blue or purple. But she might like that.

He could dye Eli’s sheep —put different colored spots all over them. No, that would make Eli mad, but it wouldn’t really affect Talitha.

His mind went blank. He couldn’t think of anything else.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw the lake sparkling in the sun. He turned around and kept walking up the hill —backward. He could see boats here and there. It looked so perfect from his place on the hill. Yet at any minute a storm could blow in and chew up the water something fierce.

Just like Talitha, he thought. Things were perfect without her. Then she would come in and mess everything up.

How can I mess everything up for her? he wondered.

Turning, he continued up the hill to the very top. A breeze blew through the grass, making a shushing sound that almost sounded like the tiny waves that lapped the shore of the lake.

He found his favorite rock and sat on it, but soon he was fidgeting. He hated being alone. It was too quiet. Mostly it was boring.

His mind seemed sluggish as he kept trying to think of things to do to Talitha. Suddenly he realized he didn’t want to do anything to her. He wanted her to leave him and his friends alone, but he didn’t really want to do anything mean to her. He just longed to play with his friends —with nobody disturbing them.

I could tell David and Joshua to forget it, he thought. But then every day would be like today. Alone. Sitting on a rock. No one to test his skills against. No one to compete with. No one to recite with. No one to wrestle with.

I’ve got to think of something good.

He could remember something “good” that had happened to Talitha once. They hadn’t even planned it, but it was perfect.

He, David, and Joshua had been having a pomegranate-seed-spitting contest, splattering a nearby rock with blood-red juice and white seeds. Talitha had appeared after dark, bringing the message that the boys’ mothers were looking for them. The boys convinced her to tell a scary story first, so she sat on a rock and told a tale that made them all shiver. Then, following her into town, they were astonished to see that red spots from hundreds of pomegranate seeds were speckling the back side of her robe, all the way down to the hem. She’d chosen the worst rock to sit on!

“She’ll think we did it on purpose,” David had whispered as they followed her. They’d all started snickering.

Talitha had been embarrassed at first, and furious later. Seth had managed to convince his mother and father that he and his friends hadn’t done anything wrong.

Now, sitting on the hilltop and staring at the water below, Seth wondered what his friends might want him to do. Would they be satisfied if Talitha was just embarrassed? No. They wanted him to do something harsh. Something that would prove to her what a girl she was and how she didn’t belong.

At that moment he knew what he would do.

He climbed on top of the rock and jumped off. Then he ran down the mountain to find his friends.

The next day the boys pooled their lunches. Joshua brought fish broth. David brought lamb stew. Seth had told his mother he was extra hungry, and so he brought a double portion of a lentil soup she’d made.

“Pour it in here,” Seth said, holding out a clay pot. He picked up a stick from the ground and stirred the three together. “Anyone want to taste?” Seth asked.

David shook his head.

“Sure!” Joshua said. He took a drink. “Delicious.”

“It’s not supposed to be delicious,” David complained. “It’s supposed to be gross.”

“But it should taste okay at first,” Seth said. “We want her to eat it all until she gets to the special prize.”

The boys all looked at each other and grinned.

Kneeling, Seth picked up a small handful of dirt. He dumped it into the pot and stirred, his heart starting to thump.

He removed a pouch from the cloth tied around his waist and crushed it against a rock. When he opened it, he saw the remains of several beetles and bugs mixed together. He put that into the pot too, and stirred.

He looked up at David and Joshua. “Should we really do this?”

David nodded. “It’s this —or you’re on your own.”

Seth swallowed. He forced a fake smile.

“It’s your choice,” David said. “Friends or not?”

Seth sighed and took another pouch from his waist. “I was going to save this for something else, but I guess it would go okay here.” He opened the pouch and slipped in the special surprise, shaking it from the piece of goat hide it was wrapped in. He was careful not to touch the surprise itself.

Joshua’s eyes grew especially bright. “This is going to be real good.”

Moments later the boys were searching the town for Talitha. They found her and some of her friends by the lake. Perfect, Seth thought. This will please Joshua and David even more —an audience.

“Hi,” the boys said, greeting Talitha and the other girls.

“We wanted to apologize,” Seth said, trying to keep the apprehension out of his voice. “So we brought you a peace offering. It’s soup.” At that moment he felt sick inside and happy, all rolled into one.

Talitha looked at them skeptically.

“It’s good,” Joshua said. “I tried it.”

Talitha took the pot. She smelled the soup. It had lost some of its warmth, but the aroma was still enticing. “Who made it?” she asked.

“My mother,” David told her.

“Your mother is the best cook in town,” Talitha said, still looking at the soup warily.

David beamed. “It’s lamb.”

Talitha brightened. “I love lamb.” Then she frowned. “It smells like fish too.”

“It’s a new type of soup she’s trying,” David said. “Fish and lamb together. Soon all the women in Capernaum will be making it.”

Seth bit his lip. He didn’t want to say anything and mess everything up. He was afraid he’d shout, “Don’t, Talitha!” or that he would grab the pot and yank her head back by her hair and force it down her throat. He wanted her to dump it. He wanted her to drink it. Mostly he wanted Joshua and David to always be his friends.

Talitha looked at each of them. Then she took a tiny sip. She took another. Then she drank a lot more. “Thank you,” she said. “I was famished, and this is good. And I don’t have to go home to eat.”

Talitha passed her lunch around and the other girls each had a swallow.

Seth thought he was going to burst if she didn’t get to the bottom soon.

“What are these dark things in it?” Talitha asked.

“Special spices!” David said. Seth thought he sounded a bit too eager.

Talitha continued to drink. When she neared the bottom, Joshua couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “There’s also dirt, a few mashed bugs, and . . .”

Joshua never got to the last ingredient. Talitha screamed and dropped the pot. As it broke, a dead lizard rolled out, its soft, white belly shining in the sun.

Talitha and her friends stared at the lizard. Talitha clutched her stomach. Her eyes grew wide. She put her hand to her mouth, and her words could barely be heard. “There was a lizard in my soup.”

Joshua and David laughed.

Seth winced. His sister’s whimpering struck him deep inside. You betrayed me, she seemed to be saying.

“A dead lizard,” Talitha said faintly. “I’m . . . unclean.” Her friends gasped and looked in horror at each other.

Joshua nodded. “You’ll get over it.” He poked at the belly of the lizard. A little bit of soup squirted from its mouth.

Talitha bent over and then emptied her stomach on the ground next to the creature. Her friends turned away, looking as if they were about to do the same.

David and Joshua set off at a run, and Seth followed. “You did it!” David declared over his shoulder.

Seth let relief take over, washing away all doubts over whether he had done the right thing. He joined in as the other boys laughed, and accepted their congratulatory slaps on his back.

That night at dinner Seth had his parents all to himself. At first he was nervous, certain Talitha had told on him.

“Talitha’s not feeling well,” his mother said.

“What’s wrong with her?” Seth asked.

“Her stomach is unsettled,” his mother answered. “It’s probably something she ate.”

“What did she eat?” Seth asked, his heart pounding.

“Something some of her friends gave her.”

His mother said nothing more about it. Seth wondered why Talitha hadn’t told. Then he smiled. I guess we really did silence her. Success! He couldn’t stop smiling as he ate a double portion of fish and fruit that evening.

The next morning on the way to school, Seth could hardly contain his excitement. It worked, he thought, grinning. He felt so giddy. He kept punching David and Joshua until David said, “Quit it!”

Seth stuck out his foot and tripped Joshua, who fell into the tall grass. Joshua reached up and pulled Seth to the ground with him. They rolled around, wrestling until Seth pinned Joshua.

I can’t believe it, Seth thought. Everything worked perfectly. Talitha would know better than to mess with him anymore. He put a swagger to his walk, his chin in the air, and marched ahead of the other two. “Hello, boys,” he said to a group of younger classmates.

The boys turned to look at him. Instead of looking at Seth as though he were a smarter, more important elder classmate, they looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Seth turned to Joshua and David and shrugged.

Joshua popped a piece of dried fish into his mouth. He spoke as he chewed. “I think I’m going on the fishing boat again the day after Sabbath.”

“How can you miss synagogue school?” David asked, shocked.

“Father thinks learning my trade is more important,” Joshua replied.

“There is nothing more important than God’s Word,” David said in a lofty tone.

“Ah, but one must learn to be a man,” Seth added, feeling wise and important.

Joshua dug his finger into his ear as they waited for David’s approval.

David shook his head. “The Law’s the Law.”

“Look,” Joshua said, pointing at the younger boys, using the finger he had withdrawn from his ear. “Are they laughing at us?”

Seth shook his head. “Of course not. Why would they be laughing at us?” His happy feeling grew and grew. He wished he could make something that could float into the sky. He’d hold on to it and go up and up —just like his insides were doing right now.

“Then what’s going on?” Joshua said, popping another piece of fish into his mouth.

“Probably laughing over something dumb,” Seth said. “Little boys always laugh over dumb things.”

As they got closer and closer to the synagogue, it seemed that all the boys around them were laughing about something.

“What are we missing?” Joshua finally said to one group of young boys. They didn’t answer but laughed even harder and ran.

“Baby,” said a voice behind them. They turned to see a group of older boys snickering.

“I didn’t know you wet your bed, David,” one of them said. “A big holy boy like you?”

David’s face grew dark.

“Is that why your father is always offering sacrifices?” the older boy asked. “Because of his unclean son?”

“That’s not true,” Joshua defended his friend.

“Yeah, nose picker?” taunted another boy. “We heard you have such a problem that your mother puts cloths over your hands at night.”

Joshua’s mouth flapped open and closed like a fish’s.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Seth said. “Why are you making up these things?”

“No one’s making up anything,” the largest boy said. “Thanks to your sister, Talitha, we know all the interesting things about you.”

“Like you suck your thumb sometimes when you sleep,” the boy next to him said.

Seth’s head swam. Everything felt jumbled in his head. He wanted to deny it —but he couldn’t. He had sucked his thumb in the middle of the night when he’d awakened, scared. But not recently. Not really recently.

He tried changing the subject. “What makes you think you know anything? You don’t know if anything Talitha said is true.”

The big boy laughed. “You forget she’s a woman. And all women talk. They talk while they wash clothes. They talk while they cook together, while they weave together. And I guess Talitha just listens well.”

“She’s making sure all the kids in the synagogue know all your secrets,” a small but older boy said.

With a final round of laughter, the boys moved past Seth, David, and Joshua.

David and Joshua moved in front of Seth and stopped. Joshua’s arms looked larger, his legs longer and stronger as he stood like a soldier defending something. David crossed his arms, and his eyebrows drew together.

“No more!” Joshua said. “I’m not going to hang around with some kid whose sister tells things about me. Don’t even think about being my friend anymore.”

David glared. “Enough! I’ve had enough!” Without another word they turned toward the synagogue and quickly walked away.

Seth stared after them. The farther they got from him, the emptier he felt. He wanted to run after them, but he knew it was over.

Other boys on their way to the synagogue passed him, laughing as they went. Did they believe what Talitha had said about him?

He barely made it through synagogue school. He was glad they had a visiting rabbi who taught them his own interpretation of Scripture. Visiting rabbis usually didn’t pay as much attention to the boys. Seth had the chance to sit and think.

What am I going to do without my friends? Seth pictured long afternoons trying to remember and recite Scripture alone. He pictured hot days without anyone to pitch rocks with him. He thought about rainy days alone in his house. Alone with women.

Talitha did it. Talitha has ruined me. Anger began to seep in. It grew stronger and warmer with each thought.

Seth couldn’t wait until school was over.

Talitha sat outside the courtyard of their home. She was embroidering some piece of linen, but Seth didn’t care what she was doing. He stomped over to her and stood with his arms crossed. “You’ve ruined my life!” he told her.

Talitha looked up at him, smiling sweetly. “You know I like games, Seth. And it seems you wanted to play the revenge game.”

Seth was so angry he could feel his crossed arms start to shake. Everything seemed to go white. Through a pinhole of sight he could see Talitha’s grin as she began to laugh.

Knowing —but not caring —that he was about to get into big trouble, Seth drew back his arm. With all the force he could muster, he slammed his fist into his sister’s arm and followed with a kick to her shin.

Talitha’s laugh turned into a howl of pain.

Instead of running away to postpone getting in trouble as he usually did, Seth stood still. He wanted to see her hurting. She deserves it, he thought.

“Mother!” Talitha screamed.

A moment later Seth’s mother appeared, her hand holding up her robe so she didn’t trip as she ran. Her face showed a mother’s fear. “What happened, Talitha? Are you all right?” She examined her daughter, apparently checking for blood.

Seth straightened himself as tall as he could manage. “I hit her.”

Mother slowly turned and looked at him, her fear turning to anger. “You what?”

“She deserved it. She’s ruined my life!” The rage continued to pulse through him. His breath came in rapid, short bursts as if he’d been running a long distance.

“Has God given up His throne to you?” his mother asked.

Seth’s eyebrows pulled together, confused as he was by the question. “Of course not.”

“Yet you take revenge into your own hands? It is only for God to decide whether or not there should be revenge. He also is the only One who decides what kind of revenge there should be. Anyone who takes revenge into his own hands has decided to become a god.”

Not this time, Seth thought. God hadn’t acted soon enough. God hadn’t done His job. Besides, Talitha was playing the revenge game too.

“Go to your father and tell him what you’ve done,” his mother said.

Talitha’s tears had stopped. She rubbed her arm.

Seth could tell she held back a smile. He glared at her, turned, and started toward the synagogue.